[OANNES Foro] Cambodia: Fish protein wafers to ease acute malnutrition in children

[Mario Cabrejos]

Fish protein wafers to ease acute malnutrition in children

By:  <https://www.scidev.net/global/author.fatima-arkin.html> Fatima Arkin

10/01/19

 
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[MANILA] A snack based on fish proteins, launched last month (17 December),
is expected to help the Cambodian government reach its goal of treating at
least 25,000 children for severe acute malnutrition every year.
 
Eventually, production of this snack could be expanded to help over five
million  <https://www.scidev.net/global/health/children/> children under the
age of five in East Asia and the Pacific who are affected by severe acute
malnutrition annually, according to Arnaud Laillou, a
<https://www.scidev.net/global/health/nutrition/> nutrition specialist at
<https://www.unicef.org/cambodia/> UNICEF Cambodia. Laillou points to the
Lao PDR and Myanmar as countries in the region that could readily adopt the
product.



Acutely malnourished children are nine times more likely to die than
well-nourished children, according to UNICEF. Typically, they have severe
muscle wasting and swollen feet, face and limbs and need emergency care,
including therapeutic food, to survive.
 
The new snack, called Nutrix, offers a locally produced alternative to
imported therapeutic foods that are usually made with peanut and milk
powder.
 
Approximately 2.6 per cent of children in Cambodia suffer from severe acute
malnutrition while another eight per cent have moderate to acute
malnutrition.
 
Home-based, ready-to-use therapeutic foods are often prescribed for an
estimated 60,000 to 90,000 Cambodian children who need specialized
<https://www.scidev.net/global/health/medicine/> medical treatment annually,
according to UNICEF. The organisation also notes that local research has
shown low uptake of existing products in Cambodia's
<https://www.scidev.net/global/health/medicine/> healthcare facilities.
 
Nutrix presents a viable alternative. It is 20 per cent cheaper than
imported counterparts. Cambodian children also find it more palatable,
according to efficacy studies conducted by UNICEF. Additionally, fish is a
staple in Asia-Pacific diets; the region provides almost 90 per cent of the
world's  <https://www.scidev.net/global/agriculture/fisheries/> fish supply,
according to the UN's  <http://www.fao.org/home/en/> Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO).
 
"Nutrix came about after five years of research and hard work," Laillou
tells  <http://scidev.net/> SciDev.Net. "The final tests of the product were
essential as Cambodia is one of the first countries to use fish protein in
therapeutic food."
 
To create the Nutrix wafer, UNICEF partnered with the
<https://en.ird.fr/ird.fr> French National Research Institute for
Sustainable Development. Copenhagen University and
<https://scandasia.com/tag/danish-care-foods/> Danish Care Foods Corp. (DCF)
also worked on Nutrix. DCF is slated to produce the wafer and a lighter
version called Num Trey for the  <http://moh.gov.kh/?lang=en> Cambodian
ministry of health.

 

DCF's partner company, Vissot Co., has a Bill and Melinda Gates grant to
train workers in five local communities where the fish are caught to sort,
clean and pack the fish for transport to their factory in Phnom Penh, says
Shakuntala Thilsted, a research programme leader at WorldFish, an
international non-profit.

 

Thilsted says by using native Cambodian fish instead of dairy like in other
ready-to-use therapeutic foods, there is a higher likelihood of creating a
system that fits the local supply. The optimised supply chain is predicted
to reduce production costs by 60 per cent.

 

However, expanding the production and distribution of Nutrix to other
countries present several challenges, says Derek Headey, a senior research
fellow at the  <http://www.ifpri.org/> International Food Policy Research
Institute (IFPRI).

 

"Child stunting really accelerates very quickly at six months, exactly the
time when kids should be introduced to nutrient-dense complementary foods.
But it can be tough for nutrition programs to reach parents at six months
(unlike prenatal or neonatal care)," Headey tells SciDev.Net.

 

"Even if these foods are designed to fit local tastes and cultural feeding
practices, there's still a novelty factor to them," Headey says, adding that
there's an issue of consumers trusting the product and the "inevitable
debate about whether the product would be delivered free through the health
system".

 


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